X-Men Kingbreaker #3Review

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The intergalactic powder keg is about to explode.

By Kevin Fuller

I'm not going to lie – If X-Men: Kingbreaker weren't a War of Kings tie-in, I probably wouldn't be reading this. The X-Men's most recent cosmic tale has been pretty bland to this point. That's not to say it was bad necessarily, but it wasn't exactly necessary reading for anybody not obsessed with the X-Men. That has begun to change slightly with War of Kings looming in the near future.

The Shi'ar have always been the distant third cousin of the Marvel cosmic world. In the overall scheme of things, they are one of the big three alien races (along with the Skrulls and Kree), but they never really interacted with the rest of space like the other two have. It always seemed like the Skrulls/Kree were the alien of choice for the Avengers and Fantastic Four, and the Shi'ar would serve that role for the X-Men. This trend continued even in the face of the two recent universe-spanning Annihilation events. At least the writers are using the Shi'ar's previous noninvolvement as a key reason for getting them involved this time around, with Emperor Vulcan seeking to take advantage of his rivals weakened state. Looking to keep that from happening is the plucky remnants of the Shi'ar resistance, but first they need to break Havok & Co out of their undersea imprisonment.

As always, Chris Yost has a strong feel for the characters and they all act according to their standard norms. The problem with doing that for Vulcan though is that his "norm" is generic and boring. I just don't find "all powerful with the emotional control of a teenager" all that interesting. I was happy to see Ch'od's (too many apostrophes…) dialogue branch beyond jokes this issue, which was suffering from a little overkill as Yost tried a little too hard to morph him a lizard version of Rockslide from New X-Men. That doesn't mean there's no humor – it's just spread around organically among the different players. Even Polaris got an unexpected audible laugh out of me. I do wish the convict mercenaries Vulcan has brought on staff would get some more face time though. Right now, they're little more than "new things to hit" for the Starjammers, but a few of them have the potential to be much more with some work.

Aside from the characters themselves, the storyline is progressing well. The general outcome really isn't in doubt, but the specifics on how it gets there have not been telegraphed as yet, which is always a good sign for final issue of the series. The pacing was jerky and confusing at spots though, especially the short transition scenes in between the main jailbreak story. Dustin Weaver art is definitely spotty as well. He handles the chaotic action quite well but struggles with simple standing around. Rachel Summers looks way too Super Saiyan-ish for my taste in one early page and Ch'od is almost squished at times.

Unless you're a completist, this is a series that can easily be skipped with nothing lost when War of Kings comes around. You know Vulcan will play a pretty big role, and nothing that happens this issue or next is going to change that at all. I'm just hoping something occurs that makes him actually interesting to read about…